My mouth opened and closed, but I couldn’t seem to find words. Of course she was angry with me because of the scars.

Bell leaned forward and placed a hand over her chest. “These scars don’t make me ugly, Ford. They tell the world I’m a survivor.”

14

BELL

I couldn’t breathe. It was as if there were so many emotions thrumming through me, they were crowding my very muscle and sinew and overtaking my organs. I couldn’t seem to suck in any air. I stormed towards the bar. I had to get away from Ford, needed distance so I could breathe.

I yanked open the back door and headed for the stairs. Just as I was about to reach the bottom step, a hand caught my elbow. “Bell, wait—”

I whirled on Ford, the anger and grief and every other messy, ugly, raw emotion flowing off me in waves of heat. “You left me!” Ford’s hand dropped from my elbow as he staggered back a step. “You knew what my parents were like, how cold that house was. You knew I’d just lost my sister. No one would’ve understood my grief like you. Not a single person. Because you lost her, too. But instead of being there for me, letting me be there for you, you ran. And never once did you look back until Hunter forced your hand.”

My chest heaved, and with each inhale, the air seemed to force my anger and hurt through my body in a staccato beat. “I needed you.” The sentence came out as a whisper. It held all of my pain in its words. “I needed you, and you just left. Like it was the easiest thing in the world.”

My gaze traveled over Ford’s face. There was only one word to describe it. Ravaged. His chest rose and fell in a rhythm that matched my own. I hated his pain, wanted to reach out and pull him to me, but I couldn’t. Because as much as I didn’t want him to hurt, I couldn’t let him close enough to cause me more pain.

“I never blamed you for the accident, Ford.” It was crazy to me that he would ever think such a thing. “No one is to blame. For so long, I wished there was. Anyone or anything to focus my anger and hurt on. But it’s not you. It’s not the deer. It’s not the rain.”